Katie Chompers

For those of you who don't know this, we have a pet tortoise. She was given to us about 15 years ago and at that time was 13 years old.

Tortoises feel safe in a corner or under a bush but in our yard she has dug what we call her "condo" in an area where she feels safe. Her home goes back about 4 feet under the ground under a mound of bushes.

You might think that nothing could hurt a tortoise, but that is not true. We have had bobcats that periodically roam our back yard, big snakes looking for tortoise eggs, coyotes, and javalena.

Photo: This beautiful bobcat was in our yard and by the time ran to get my camera, she had jumped the 6 foot fence into our neighbor's yard and was sitting as if she felt right at home.

Photo: Snake . . .yikes, that is a BIG snake! It was about 4 - 5 feet in length and it was searching for tortoise eggs.

Photo: Our tortoise lays eggs in June or July and we were astounded of the size.

Each egg is about the size of a ping-pong ball and the last couple of times when we have found her eggs there were 5 or 6. These are what snakes look for. After she comes out of hibernation, Katie doesn't eat until she lays eggs because she is egg-bound. She digs a deep hole with her hind legs and drops the eggs in then covers them up with dirt. We were fortunate to find some of her eggs before she buried them and after she lays her eggs, she eats like a horse!! She loves to have her head rubbed and when we give her a spray of water to cool her off. When she is wet, you can better see how pretty her shell is. She also eats out of your hand but we are careful not to let our fingers get too close to her mouth because she has teeth. When she is hungry, she eats furiously.

Our grandchildren love her and whenever they come home, they delight in feeding her at dinner time. She eats vegetables and fruit.

Photo: Holland, one of our 10 granddaughters.

Photo: Louise, the daughter of a dear friend.

Photo: Drs. Tal and Dan Gafni's boys came to see Katie. Through the years, we have taken many photos of Katie with our grandchildren. It is fun to look back at old photos and I am sure as they read this blog it will be fun for them to see themselves much younger.

Photo: Claire, another granddaughter loves to feed Katie.

Photo: Ben and Katie.

Photo: Savannah and Katie.

Photo: Hannah, Claire, and Katie.

Photo: Ben and Katie.

Photo: Hannah and Katie.

Photo: Katie loves to eat flowers too.

Photo: Some friends who visited were fascinated with Katie.

During the summer months, Katie comes out in the morning for her breakfast and then goes back into her condo until it is dinner time. She usually stays with her head facing the back of the hole but when we sing, she comes out. This is the song we sing. (No kidding) "Katie Chompers, Katie Chompers, come on out and get your food. It's nutritious and delicious, come on out and get your food. We have lettuce, some blueberries, and an apple slice or two. Katie Chompers, Katie Chompers, come on out for we love you." When we found out we were moving to Jerusalem for 18 months, we didn't know what we would do about the care of Katie. Luckily, Karisa, our youngest daughter who lives in Colorado, volunteered to take care of her while we are away.

We planned to fly to Denver and take her in a box on the airplane but we quickly found out that airlines are not permitted to carry animals other than dogs or cats. Therefore, we drove her to Colorado. What a pampered pet! Fortunately, she was in hibernation and had no idea. She has stayed in hibernation until this past week (about 6 months) and when Karisa sent us a video of Katie eating dandelions in her back yard, we were delighted!

Photo: Katie has some friends in her yard now . . . chickens! I wonder what the chickens are thinking.

Photo: Karisa with Ben, Harper, and their chickens. It is important to bring a sleeping tortoise out of hibernation and not let them sleep too long. To do this, you take them out of their place of hibernation and let them warm up naturally. Sometimes it is necessary to place them under a heat lamp and to put them in shallow water in a warm bath for the first few days to help them hydrate. (Tortoises cannot swim so we have always kept Katie in a fenced off area where she can't get into our swimming pool.) When tortoises are in the water, they soak up water through their anus.

Katie was also one of the characters in a storybook a friend and I wrote for children entitled "Flowers in Heaven". Here are a few illustrations from that book so I suppose you could say she is a "storybook star!"

Photo: The storybook was written in memory of Garth's mother, Clea Holyoak, whose motto in life was: "When life gets tough, plant more flowers."

Photo: We love our grandchildren and when we return home in 2017, we will have a total of 14 grandchildren. (10 girls and 4 boys and we can't forget about Katie.)

Photo: Each summer our daughters try to come home for a little "sister reunion".

Photo: 2015 - Grandkids eating popsicles.

Photo: Family birthday party for Ben's 6th birthday.

Photo: It's difficult to get our entire family together when they are scattered everywhere but at Christmas, 2015, three of our four daughters came home with their families. Katie was in hibernation so the grand kids were sad they didn't have a chance to feed her!